While not everyone agrees that the party will finish anytime soon, today investors ran for cover, investing in metals and commodities in demand around the world. Copper was especially desirable with its value up 1.3% in London, helped by positive housing reports from the U.S. showing that sales of new houses rose in December -- houses built with copper pipes and wiring. Shares in China's Jiangxi Copper surged 3.8%. Other miners also proved popular with Zijin Mining shooting up 3.5% and Shandong Gold jumping 2.6. Chalco, officially called Aluminum Corp. of China, advanced 1.4%.

Shares in car makers were also on the rise with SAIC, the country's number one car maker climbing 2.8%. The year of the rabbit will be ushered in on Feb. 3, accompanied by a two-week holiday. While some may head out shopping, the government is predicting heavy travel with more than 2.85 billion journeys expected. Bookings on trains are becoming scarce and according to limobroker.com, bookings for rental cars in Beijing during the holiday are up by 300%. Today shares in car maker Beiqi Foton Motor motored up 4.6% and Chongqing Changan leaped 2.4%. Truck maker and exporter Anhui Jianghuai rallied 4.7%.

Sir Run Run Shaw, at age 103, has at last made his move, selling most of his shares in TVB. The filmmaker set up TVB following the success of Shaw Brothers, a film studio that put out a long line of Kung Fu films and hits such as The One Armed Swordsman and Shaolin Prince. Today shares plunged 2.9%.

In Japan positive chat about the state of the U.S. economy pushed up shares in exporters. Fanuc, the industrial robot maker rose 4.6% and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries gained 4%. Camera makers advanced with Canon up 2.2% and Olympus up 1%. Sony racked up a 1.7% gain and competing game console maker Nintendo edged up 0.9%.

Even Toyota, suffering another blow from a new round of recalls, managed a 1.2% gain, while other makers also rose. Honda spiked 2%, Mazda gained 1.2%, Nissan jumped 1% and Isuzu advanced 0.8%.